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BRD4172B
Reference Manual
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Silicon Labs BRD4172B Reference Manual

EFR32MG12 2400/169 MHz Dual Band 19 dBm Radio Board BRD4172B Reference Manual
The BRD4172B Mighty Thread, Bluetooth® Low Energy and proprietary wireless applications. The board con-
The BRD4172B Mighty Gecko Radio Board plugs into the Wireless Starter Kit Main­board, which is included with the Mighty Gecko Starter Kit and gives access to display, buttons, and additional features from Expansion Boards. With the supporting Simplicity Studio suite of tools, developers can take advantage of graphical wireless application development, mesh networking debug and packet trace, and visual energy profiling and optimization. The board also serves as an RF reference design for applications targeting
2.4 GHz and 169 MHz dual band wireless operation with 19 dBm output power.
This document contains a brief introduction and description of the BRD4172B Radio Board features, focusing on the RF sections and performance.
Gecko Radio Board enables developers to develop Zigbee,
RADIO BOARD FEATURES
• Wireless SoC: EFR32MG12P433F1024GM48
•
CPU core: ARM Cortex®-M4 with FPU
• Flash memory: 1024 kB
•
RAM: 256 kB
• Operation frequency: 2.4 GHz + 169.4 MHz
• Transmit power: 19 dBm
• 2.4 GHz: Integrated PCB antenna, UFL connector (optional)
• 169.4 MHz: Single SMA connector both for transmit and receive
• Crystals for LFXO and HFXO: 32.768 kHz and 38.4 MHz
• 8 Mbit low-power serial flash for over-the­air updates
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................
4
2. Radio Board Connector ...........................5
2.1 Introduction...............................5
2.2 Radio Board Connector Pin Associations.....................5
3. Radio Board Block Summary .........................6
3.1 Introduction...............................6
3.2 Radio Board Block Diagram .........................6
3.3 Radio Board Block Description ........................6
3.3.1 Wireless MCU............................6
3.3.2 LF Crystal Oscillator (LFXO) .......................6
3.3.3 HF Crystal Oscillator (HFXO).......................6
3.3.4 Matching Network for Sub-GHz ......................6
3.3.5 Matching Network for 2.4 GHz ......................7
3.3.6 SMA Connector ...........................7
3.3.7 UFL Connector ...........................7
3.3.8 Radio Board Connectors ........................7
3.3.9 Inverted-F Antenna ..........................7
3.3.10 Serial Flash ............................7
3.3.11 Serial EEPROM ...........................7
4. RF Section ................................8
4.1 Introduction...............................8
4.2 Schematic of the RF Matching Network .....................8
4.2.1 Description of the Sub-GHz RF Matching ..................8
4.2.2 Description of the 2.4 GHz RF Matching ...................8
4.3 RF Section Power Supply ..........................8
4.4 Bill of Materials for the sub-GHz Matching ....................8
4.5 Bill of Materials for the 2.4 GHz Matching ....................9
4.6 Inverted-F Antenna ............................9
5. Mechanical Details .............................11
6. EMC Compliance ............................. 12
6.1 Introduction...............................12
6.2 EMC Regulations for 169.4 MHz .......................12
6.2.1 ETSI EN 300-200-1 Emission Limits for the 169.4-169.475 MHz Band .........12
6.3 ETSI EN 300-328 Emission Limits for the 2400-2483.5 MHz Band ............12
6.4 FCC15.247 Emission Limits for the 2400-2483.5 MHz Band ..............12
6.5 Applied Emission Limits for the 2.4 GHz Band ...................13
7. RF Performance ............................. 14
7.1 Conducted Power Measurements .......................14
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7.1.1 Conducted Measurements in the 169.4 MHz Band ...............14
7.1.2 Conducted Measurements in the 2.4 GHz Band ................15
7.2 Radiated Power Measurements ........................16
7.2.1 Radiated Measurements in the 169.4 MHz Band ................17
7.2.2 Radiated Measurements in the 2.4 GHz band .................18
8. EMC Compliance Recommendations ..................... 19
8.1 Recommendations for 169 MHz ETSI EN 300-220-1 compliance.............19
8.2 Recommendations for 2.4 GHz ETSI EN 300-328 compliance .............19
8.3 Recommendations for 2.4 GHz FCC 15.247 compliance ...............19
9. Board Revision History .......................... 20
10. Errata................................. 21
11. Document Revision History ........................ 22
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BRD4172B Reference Manual
Introduction

1. Introduction

The EFR32 Mighty Gecko Radio Boards provide a development platform (together with the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard) for the Silicon Labs EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless System-on-Chips and serve as reference designs for the matching networks of the RF in­terfaces.
The BRD4172B Radio Board supports dual-band operation with its integrated sub-GHz ISM band and 2.4 GHz band transceivers. The sub-GHz section is designed to operate in the European ETSI 169.4-169.475 MHz band with an external whip antenna; the 2.4 GHz section is designed to operate at the 2400-2483.5 MHz band with the on-board printed antenna. The matching networks are optimized for operating at 19 dBm output power.
To develop and/or evaluate the EFR32 Mighty Gecko, the BRD4172B Radio Board can be connected to the Wireless Starter Kit Main­board to get access to display, buttons, and additional features from Expansion Boards, and also to evaluate the performance of the RF interfaces.
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GND
F9 / PA3 / VCOM.#RTS_#CS
3v3
NC / P36
P200
Upper Row
NC / P38 NC / P40 NC / P42 NC / P44
DEBUG.TMS_SWDIO / PF1 / F0
DISP_ENABLE / SENSOR_ENABLE / PD15 / F14
UIF_BUTTON0 / PF6 / F12
UIF_LED0 / PF4 / F10
VCOM.#CTS_SCLK / PA2 / F8
DEBUG.RESET / RADIO_#RESET / F4
DEBUG.TDO_SWO / PF2 / F2
DISP_SI / PC6 / F16
VCOM.TX_MOSI / PA0 / F6
PTI.DATA / PB12 / F20
DISP_EXTCOMIN / PD13 / F18
USB_VBUS
5V
Board ID SCL
GND
Board ID SDA
USB_VREG
F7 / PA1 / VCOM.RX_MISO
F5 / PA5 / VCOM_ENABLE
F3 / PF3 / DEBUG.TDI
F1 / PF0 / DEBUG.TCK_SWCLK
P45 / NC
P43 / NC
P41 / NC
P39 / NC
P37 / PD15 / DISP_ENABLE / SENSOR_ENABLE
F11 / PF5 / UIF_LED1 F13 / PF7 / UIF_BUTTON1 F15 / PC8 / DISP_SCLK F17 / PD14 / DISP_SCS F19 / PB13 / PTI.SYNC F21 / PB11 / PTI.CLK
GND
VMCU_IN
VCOM.#CTS_SCLK / PA2 / P0
P201
Lower Row
VCOM.#RTS_#CS / PA3 / P2
UIF_BUTTON0 / PF6 / P4 UIF_BUTTON1 / PF7 / P6
GND
VRF_IN
P35 / PD15 / DISP_ENABLE / SENSOR_ENABLE
P7 / PC9
P5 / PC8 / DISP_SCLK
P3 / PC7
P1 / PC6 / DISP_SI
P33 / PD14 / DISP_SCS
P31 / PD13 / DISP_EXTCOMIN
P29 / NC
P27 / NC
P25 / NC
P23 / NC
P21 / NC
P19 / NC
P17 / NC
P15 / NC
P13 / PC11
P11 / PA1 / VCOM.RX_MISO
P9 / PA0 / VCOM.TX_MOSI
NC / P34
UIF_LED1 / PF5 / P32
NC / P30
DEBUG.TDO_SWO / PF2 / P28
DEBUG.TMS_SWDIO / PF1 / P26
DEBUG.TCK_SWCLK / PF0 / P24
PTI.SYNC / PB13 / P22
PTI.DATA / PB12 / P20
PTI.CLK / PB11 / P18
VCOM_ENABLE / PA5 / P16
PA4 / P14
PC10 / P12
DEBUG.TDI / PF3 / P10
UIF_LED0 / PF4 / P8
BRD4172B Reference Manual
Radio Board Connector

2. Radio Board Connector

2.1 Introduction

The board-to-board connector scheme allows access to all EFR32MG12 GPIO pins as well as the RESETn signal. For more informa­tion on the functions of the available pins, see the EFR32MG12 data sheet.

2.2 Radio Board Connector Pin Associations

The figure below shows the mapping between the connector and the EFR32MG12 pins and their function on the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard.
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Figure 2.1. BRD4172B Radio Board Connector Pin Mapping

3. Radio Board Block Summary

EFR32
Inverted-F
PCB
Antenna
2.4 GHz RF
UFL
Connector
LF
Crystal
32.768k
HF
Crystal
38.4M
Radio Board
Connectors
8 Mbit
MX25R
Serial Flash
I2C
24AA024
Serial EEPROM
Matching
Network &
Output
Selection
GPIO
UART
Debug
Packet Trace
AEM
I2C
SPI
SPI
2.4 GHz RF
2.4 GHz RF
SubGHz RF
Matching
Network &
DC Bias
SubGHz RF
SMA
Connector
EFR32
EFR32
Wireless SoC

3.1 Introduction

This section gives a short introduction to the blocks of the BRD4172B Radio Board.

3.2 Radio Board Block Diagram

The block diagram of the BRD4172B Radio Board is shown in the figure below.
BRD4172B Reference Manual
Radio Board Block Summary
Figure 3.1. BRD4172B Block Diagram

3.3 Radio Board Block Description

3.3.1 Wireless MCU

BRD4172B Mighty Gecko Radio Board incorporates an EFR32MG12P433F1024GM48 Wireless System-on-Chip featuring 32-bit
The Cortex®-M4 with FPU core, 1024 kB of flash memory, 256 kB of RAM, an integrated 2.4 GHz band, and an integrated sub-GHz ISM
band transceiver with output power up to 19 dBm. For additional information on the EFR32MG12P433F1024GM48, refer to the EFR32MG12 data sheet.

3.3.2 LF Crystal Oscillator (LFXO)

The BRD4172B Radio Board has a 32.768 kHz crystal mounted. For details regarding the crystal configuration, refer to Application Note "AN0016.1: Oscillator Design Considerations".

3.3.3 HF Crystal Oscillator (HFXO)

The BRD4172B Radio Board has a 38.4 MHz crystal mounted. For details regarding the crystal configuration, refer to Application Note "AN0016.1: Oscillator Design Considerations".

3.3.4 Matching Network for Sub-GHz

The BRD4172B Radio Board incorporates a sub-GHz matching network which connects both the sub-GHz TX and RX pins of the EFR32MG12 to the SMA connector to be able to transmit and receive with one antenna. The component values have been optimized for the 169.4 MHz band RF performance and current consumption with 19 dBm output power.
For a detailed description of the matching network see section 4.2.1 Description of the Sub-GHz RF Matching.
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3.3.5 Matching Network for 2.4 GHz

BRD4172B Reference Manual
Radio Board Block Summary
The BRD4172B
Radio Board incorporates a 2.4 GHz matching network which connects the 2.4 GHz TRX pin of the EFR32MG12 to the one on-board printed inverted-F antenna. The component values have been optimized for the 2.4 GHz band RF performance and cur­rent consumption with 19 dBm output power.
For a detailed description of the matching network, see section 4.2.2 Description of the 2.4 GHz RF Matching.

3.3.6 SMA Connector

To be able to perform conducted measurements or mount external antenna for radiated measurements, range tests, etc., Silicon Labs added an SMA connector to the Radio Board. The connector allows an external 50 Ohm cable or antenna to be connected during de­sign verification or testing.

3.3.7 UFL Connector

To be able to perform conducted measurements, Silicon Labs added a UFL connector to the Radio Board. The connector allows an external 50 Ohm cable or antenna to be connected during design verification or testing.
Note: By default, the output of the matching network is connected to the printed inverted-F antenna by a series component. It can be connected to the UFL connector as well through a series 0 Ohm resistor, which is not mounted by default. For conducted measure­ments through the UFL connector, the series component to the antenna should be removed and the 0 Ohm resistor should be mounted (see section 4.2.2 Description of the 2.4 GHz RF Matching for further details).

3.3.8 Radio Board Connectors

Two dual-row, 0.05” pitch polarized connectors make up the BRD4172B Radio Board interface to the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard.
For more information on the pin mapping between the EFR32MG12P433F1024GM48 and the Radio Board Connector, refer to section
2.2 Radio Board Connector Pin Associations.

3.3.9 Inverted-F Antenna

The BRD4172B Radio Board includes a printed inverted-F antenna (IFA) tuned to have close to 50 Ohm impedance at the 2.4 GHz band.
For detailed description of the antenna, see section 4.6 Inverted-F Antenna.

3.3.10 Serial Flash

The BRD4172B Radio Board is equipped with an 8 Mbit Macronix MX25R SPI flash that is connected directly to the EFR32MG12 to support over-the-air (OTA) updates. For additional information on the pin mapping see the BRD4172B schematic.

3.3.11 Serial EEPROM

The BRD4172B Radio Board is equipped with a serial I2C EEPROM for board identification and to store additional board related infor­mation.
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